accents

can anyone from usa or canada explain to me the differences betwwen a standard american accent and a canadian one? ive tried to find it but i cant, so far - on the other hand i hardly hear any one speak in a canadian accent in films etc cause most of them come from usa!

is there a difference or do they just blend into each other, because the two countries are joined (unlike with australia & new zealand).

in britain although england scotland and wales are joined, there is a marked difference between these countries accents.

has anyone from usa or canada heard a welsh accent before? i live in wales - if i spoke quickly to you you probably wouldn`t understand me

Hey there j0n4th4n,

Well yes, some Canadians do have a slightly different accent than their American cousins. Aside from the Quebecois (who speak a dialect of French), I’ve noticed that eastern Canadians (from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, etc.) tend to inflect the end of their sentences. It sounds to my ear as if they are perpetually asking questions. Still, I find their accent nice to listen to. I can’t detect much of an accent in the Western Canadians (from Ontario westward) that I’ve met. A Canadian would be better able to tell you about Candian regional accents.

Despite recent mass migrations and the influence of the television some regions of America still have strong local accents. My father’s family from rural Georgia have very pronounced and beautiful accents. I currently live in Vermont (not far from the Canadian border) where there is a completely different native accent. New England is home to a number of distinct accents. For example, I can easily tell a Boston accent from a Rhode Island accent. Even within Boston itself I can pick out two accents. The only American accents I don’t find charming are those from the New York City / North Jersey area and those from Texas. I hear tourists up from NYC on a weekly basis. I think I’d rather chew aluminum foil than hear a woman speak loudly (invariably the case) in a Jersey accent.

I enjoy hearing most of the accents from the UK. When I crossed England on foot a few years ago on the Coast-to-Coast trail I fell in love with those wonderful Northern British accents. On my next trip to the UK I’d like to walk the Offa’s Dike trail on the Welsh / English border. I look forward to hearing the Welsh dialect.

Michael

As a Canadian, I might be able to help with the Canadian/American accent thing. I’m from the West Coast, and when I flew down to the States recently, I was asked several times “Why don’t you have a Canadian accent?” However, no one was able to tell me what this accent was supposed to sound like.
It’s true that French Canadians have a french accent, and East Coasters have a different intonation. People from Newfoundland especially have a distinctive accent. In the rest of Canada, however, the accent is very similar to an American accent. For example, Matthew Perry (Chandler on Friends) was raised in Ontario, and no one notices an accent with him…